Hmm. That was interesting to say the least. What a scorcher of a day. I definitely agree with the comment made by another club blogger on the Alphas canopy. Because it has a canopy rather than a roof it is pretty much like a glasshouse in there, and this theory was put to practice. A few bit of sweat was dripping off my face after that, noticed the clipboard had sweat marks on it from my hands, that shows how hot we were.
This lesson we were told to taxi to 'Golf' holding point, so after asking my instructor where the heck that was off we went. RWY 07 is grass and relatively short, a little over 700m. We were told to make the first circuit a right hand one, which is a bit of a pain because you then have the instructor blocking your view to the right, but thats just another thing you have to get around. I seem to have a bit of trouble keeping sight of these runways as they are a bit hard to see sometimes. We ran out of time because I didn't quite antipate the short amound of time we would have to do the checks and call downwind.
Nevertheless we were soon on shortfinals with a slight crosswind to make it interesting. We were coming in a bit crooked for our liking so I applied full power and went round.
The second time I had a better approach but I need to speed up those downwind checks. We came in too high and we drifted down the runway. We touch and goed and went up for the final circuit.
This, like usual, is always the best circuit because it normally takes a while to get 'your eye in'. Approach was a bit better, this time I think I braked more smoothly which was good, then taxied back to the club for shutdown. In a few lessons it sounds like I will move onto the emergency procegures, but we'll see how we go. No point on moving on until you've got the hang of the circuit, I guess.
Next lesson Thursday.
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11 comments:
Sounds like you're getting better as you go.. Good to hear! When I was doing circuits I had a nutcase instructor who did a simulated engine failure on EVERY circuit!!!!
I would also suggest you might like to photocopy the HN Ground Movements page from the VFG and stick it on your wall at home - nothing impresses an instructor more than when it looks like you know where you're going :-)
You don't have to know everything to do with flying, but you DO have to know WHERE to find what you need to know.
I don't know about the Alphas, but if I assume they are similar to all the other club planes I have flown there is an A5 sized black plastic folder with photocopies of all the information you need to operate inside Hamilton Airspace as well as information on some of the more common airfields we visit on a regular basis during training.
If you get told to taxi to point Charlie 1 or to make a north arrival, its all in the book.
Of course, the book is simply a condensed version of the VFG Vol 4. If you don't have a VFG I highly recommend getting one and familiarizing yourself with it before you sit your Aviation Law examination. Knowing where to find answers will save 5-10 minutes of fumbling through pages looking for things during the test.
That's excellent advice Euan!
Good idea guys, thanks for the advice. Might look at buying a VFG which will come in handy in future.
I suppose I should ask the club about exams, I believe the night classes are on Tues and Thurs?
A VFG is a very good idea - you have to buy the folder thingy then a subscription and they send you an utterly annoying amount of pieces of paper every month!!! I hate filing them but I think Euan likes them :-)
I hope you've got a medical sorted, or you should probably get onto that too before they try and send you solo :)
Yeah sounds like a bit of a nuisance having to file stuff every month but cant get round that.
Yep I've got my class 2 so medically fit for solo/licence. Lucky they only have to be renewed every 5 years, stuff having to renew it every year.
Yeah, now the thing to do is to get your exams out of the way ASAP so you aren't held up when you start your cross-country flying (trust me, it is coming sooner than you think!!) I dunno if it's just me, but I found that doing the study for the exams, especially the radio license really really helps when you go up flying..
OK thanks for that, I'll talk to my instructor on Thursday about the exams and nightclasses. Bit of a bugga if they are on a Thursday, work that night...
For tomorrow's flight, have you got a mobile I can get the number for? The weather looks like it might be grubby first thing, so it would be good to be able to call you once it clears up a bit
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